Grey phoenix
by Kingdark
Summary: Through sheer circumstances and sheer luck, Harry becomes the first Grey phoenix. Voldemort is dead but he's got two angry factions out for his blood. And just because Voldemort is dead doesn't mean that the blood extremists are suddenly gone.


A second too late…

Summary: AU starting at the end of first year.

X 01X

Harry looked into the mirror and felt something in his pocket that wasn't there a second ago. Immediately, he knew somehow that this was what the stuttering madman was after. He also knew that unless something happened, chances were low he was getting out of here alive. But then he had known that somehow anyway. Somehow.

Harry had no idea how the stone worked. If it made the one that it was applied to younger… Or if it simply restored them to their prime. Or if it removed any illness including the illness of ageing. That being said, Harry was a Gryffindor and they tended to act very recklessly if they thought it might be worth it. Harry tried to remember if he knew anything that could possibly give him even the tiniest of hints of how he could use the stone so he could deny it to anyone else.

If Harry had been able to study the stone he would've noticed that it wasn't round or smooth at all. The stone looked like tiny pieces had been removed over a long time. The stone had in fact, grown small enough that it could be swallowed whole. But Harry didn't know this so he figured that throwing it as hard as he could to the very hot flames behind him would be his best bet. He had needed a potion in order to go through it after all, and he could _still_ feel the heat from the flames from where he was standing. So it stood to reason that the flames were very, very hot.

Harry wasn't the seeker for nothing. But he was also very good at _throwing_ things hard and fast. So that was what he did. He grabbed the stone in his pocket, squeezed it as hard as he could to get a feel of it and then he ran as fast as he could and threw it into the flames as soon as he was close enough that it couldn't be summoned back in time. If the crazy man did in fact try to summon it, then Harry could snatch it out of thin air and throw it again.

Fortunately, Harry didn't need to snatch it out of the air for his first throw was so unexpected and so fast that the crazy man had no time to react. Harry's actions though were very unexpected. Fawkes the phoenix had been watching as per his instructions of his current master.

What very few people realized was that the phoenix was in fact a very selfish bird. It was so afraid of death that it was reborn in flames when something killed it. However… The phoenix could still die of old age. Every time it died, it experienced a burning day, changing it back into a chick. It didn't matter if it was of old age that it experienced a burning day or if it was killed by aggression. A burning day was a burning day. Each and every time it happened, the next _natural_ burning day would just happen a little faster.

Fawkes the phoenix knew what the stone in Harry's pocket was. It also knew that this was a way for it to keep living a hell of a lot longer. It also knew how the stone worked. What neither phoenix nor child knew was that the stone could also be turned into liquid if it was exposed to flames. The Flamels remove a tiny piece from the stone, exposed it to flames and then dropped the drop of liquid into something to drink. It would then be processed through their body.

Keep this in mind. Hot flames equals changing a tiny piece of the stone into a drop. Throwing the whole stone into flames would translate into a bucket of liquid. The stone's magic was designed to locate the closest compatible lifeform which was Harry himself. So the stone which had reached the flames made a u-turn and forced itself into Harry's body.

Harry did not expect such a thing to happen and since this happened very quickly and he was still running, he tripped and hurt himself. Combine that with a greedy phoenix attempting to flame into the liquid and the magical HOT flames nearby and you had a recipe for disaster.

The combination of the factors described above caused a powerful explosion. As said before, the stone was a very magical creation and it was designed to use everything and anything it had available in order to do its job. That included stupid birds that literally took a bath in it and since the stone was designed for humans…

The stone's magic attacked Fawkes magic and forcefully annexed it, effectively killing the greedy bird. That still wasn't the end of it though. Fawkes, while considered 'old' by humans was about middle aged by phoenix's standards. Fawkes had seen, heard, learned, done and experienced a lot of things. Those experiences were taken by the stone's magic and 'merged' with Harry's own magic. Fawkes his memories were similarly taken and absorbed but it was done in such a way that Harry would remember them from a 'distant' point of view. It wouldn't be like HE had done it but rather as if he had been part of the crowd. The magic of Fawkes had been absorbed and annexed into Harry's own when the magic of the stone encountered a second problem: namely a large part of the soul of a wizard. A wizard that was born as Tom Riddle but later started to call himself Voldemort.

The part of Tom Riddle wanted to live. So did the remnants of Fawkes's personality. Both wanted to 'live' very badly and so something utterly unique happened. It's said that wizards and witches have no common sense but the same could be said about magic itself. It obeyed no rules, it had no real limits because as long as you threw enough force at it, SOMETHING would happen.

Never before had there been a grey phoenix. They had either been to the light… Or to the dark. Never before had there been a middle ground. The magic of the newly born human phoenix hybrid would not tolerate any competitor's so it lashed out to the leech on the crazy man and the other pieces of 'soul' spread throughout Britain. The containers were left behind as the soul pieces themselves were dragged kicking and screaming out of their hiding place and towards Hogwarts. The soul pieces stood no chance against fighting an old part of their own and a whole soul and so they too suffered death by personality. Their memories, experiences and skills were absorbed and annexed and merged with Harry himself.

Never before had there been a human with two souls though and so the magic sought for a solution desperately because if it couldn't find a solution then the human phoenix hybrid would suffer its first death and it had no idea what the result would be in the end. Finally, it remembered something from Tom's old memories backed up by something Harry had overheard.

M.P.D or Multiple persona disorder. Or something to that effect. Magic was still magic though so it couldn't be _simple_ that. No, magic always had to be balanced. It could be said that being 'grey' was balanced by itself but Harry and Tom were still very different people. Even if Tom had suffered death by personality.

By the end of it, there were a total amount of _three_ personalities. The main personality was in charge and could be classified as grey. The other two… Well, you know about having an angel and a devil whisper in your ear? The other two could be just a well be compared to that. Both advocating 'their' views extreme though they were.

All of the above had occurred in seconds. The whole confrontation was over in less than five minutes.

The crazy wizard had long since perished when the 'main piece' of Voldemort was torn from him by force, leaving Harry alone.

"That… Was unexpected."

" _Yhea, no kidding."_ Something whispered back. Harry blinked several times as relevant memories were absorbed and he made the relevant conclusions.

"What will happen to us now?" Harry asked absently.

" _I don't know but we have to prepare for the worst. Dumbledore is no doubt hurrying back by now and that man is very hard to predict."_

"Is that a remnant of the fear you… We… err Voldemort once felt?" Harry asked with a teasing smile.

" _That's a good way to refer to who I once was. I'm definitely not HIM anymore. Nor do I want to be. My only priority is to protect you. To think that the dream that I… That Voldemort once held has been completed in a way… Such irony!"_

"Dream?" Harry asked. Again, the relevant memories were pushed to the front and again, he made the right conclusions.

"So you desired for immortality, mutilated your soul as a result and by the end it made no difference because… 'this' happened?"

" _Pretty much yes."_

"So what do I call you?"

" _Call me Nox."_

"Fitting." Was all Harry had to said about the matter. "Still, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do now."

" _You may call me Lumos."_

'…'

'…'

"This is ridiculous! I'm already special enough with the stuff that happened before, but now I have TWO voices in my head. Troublesome!" Harry complained.

" _Just deal with it and yell at the Fates when you learn the proper Dark Magic."_ Nox advised.

Harry pinched his nose and didn't reply. "Am I going to have two voices advocating for two extreme views for the rest of my life?" Harry asked rhetorically.

" _Extreme our views may be, we are still a part of your personality so we should be capable of compromise."_ Lumos offered. This gave Harry a bit of hope that he wouldn't be bothered with extreme views like he head feared.

" _Of course such a thing is only possible with proper Light Magic."_

SLAP

Hand met face as Harry realized he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up.

" _Err, I was kidding?"_ Lumos added quickly. When it realized that its attempt of humour had failed miserably.

"Yhea, no shit Sherlock." Harry muttered in reply.

" _We should move onward because Dumbledore won't stay away forever you know."_ Nox reminded them.

" _You could claim ignorance and lie like you've never lied before."_

" _Or you could just tell him the truth and nothing but the truth."_ Lumos interrupted.

"I suck at lying." Harry answered with a shake of his head. He was actually pretty good at it but not in Hogwarts it seemed.

" _That's because adult witches and wizards are capable of skimming the thoughts of other witches and wizards by look in their eyes."_ Nox answered.

"WHAT?!" Harry exclaimed.

" _My counterpart speaks the truth."_ Lumos agreed.

" _You could compromise and just play up your age to the best of your ability. You could avoid telling the whole thing if you're smart about it."_ Nox offered.

'…'

'…'

" _What? My first priority is Harry. If that means compromising when his health is at stake then that's what I'm going to do. Just don't expect me to do it all the time!"_ Nox said calmly.

" _You are pretty calm about this."_ Lumos observed. Ignoring what Nox said at the moment.

"Oh no! I **really** want to freak out about this, but I have decades of information and experiences stuffed in my brain from HIS side and I've got CENTURIES of observations and experiences from the bird's side. It's only that, that is keeping me from panicking and passing out. Not fainting. Boys do not faint. They pass out in a manly manner."

'…'

'…'

Ignoring the silence for the moment, Harry focussed on yet another problem to solve.

Harry just shrugged and took his time to examine the room. Then something occurred to him. "What will Dumbledore think when Fawkes never shows up again? Hell, what will OTHER phoenix's think when they find out I was involved the death of one of their own?"

" _The dark side will probably rejoice that the other side has lost one of their number."_ Nox offered.

" _The golden phoenix's will probably ignore this because it means they won't have to share their immortality with another of their kind."_

Sensing that his statement confused both Harry and Nox as well, Lumos offered an additional explanation.

" _The lifetime of a golden phoenix is based partly on how many of their kind they are and how fast their rebirths happen. It's a bit of a double edged knife if you take the dark phoenix's in mind. Because if the golden phoenixes' drop in number too much, then they might go back at war ACTIVELY instead of the status quo as it is now."_

"You know what? Forget it. If they are going to ignore me, then so be it. It's something I don't have to worry about then." Harry decided.

" _Of course, some of them may curse their bad luck that they couldn't try it themselves and do it properly."_ Nox said sarcastically.

" _True. Probably."_ Lumos admitted.

"Moving ONWARD… What did Fawkes try to do exactly? From your point of view I mean."

Both Nox and Lumos hesitated because their own experience was pretty different.

" _I'll take this one?"_ Lumos half asked half stated.

Since Nox made no effort to protest, Lumos assumed that it meant his counterpart agreed with him.

" _Fawkes… Fawkes had been watching this room for a lot of time. He knew that alone he couldn't do anything with the stone. So when the room was empty, it left it alone since there was no point in watching an empty chamber. But when it sensed the protections of the rooms being dealt with, it flamed into the room and hid itself under its own magic. He could sense you following, so Fawkes decided to take a wait and see approach. He was willing to do a lot of things to get to live longer."_ Lumos left it unsaid that the life of a single human child was more than a fair price for a wise phoenix like himself.

"Then what happened?"

" _Fawkes tried to intercept the stone and absorb it for himself. It would've guaranteed to triple his lifespan easily."_

"What does that mean to me?"

" _I honestly don't know."_ Lumos admitted.

" _Neither do I."_ Nox seconded. _"But you should remember that our first priority is your safety. We exist to act as a… Buffer you could say of the knowledge and experiences you absorbed. It means that you are stuck with us for a long time."_ Nox said in an attempt to reassure Harry.

"What does that mean for me?"

" _It MIGHT mean that you are the firs grey phoenix in existence. It MIGHT mean that you will be reborn when killed like Fawkes and his counterparts."_

"No certainties?"

" _No."_ Lumos agreed.

 _No."_ Nox confirmed.

"Okay, I'll deal with that shit later then." Harry decided.

Harry was probably the only human alive to know as much as he did about phoenix culture. A lot of people knew that phoenixes existed. But what few people knew was the fact that the Golden phoenix had a counterpart. Where the golden phoenix represented 'good' the 'black' phoenix represented bad. However both sides couldn't actually be classified as good and evil. Each held extreme views with no room for compromise.

Both sides had been at war with each other for centuries and when they realized that neither was winning they had settled for the long game in a sort of cold war instead.

It was then that the door was literally blown open and the Headmaster rolled into the room in a way you would never expect from the elderly man. Hell, wizards Harry had realized since the beginning of the year hated to do anything themselves and used magic to do it for them if they could get away with it. Wizards and witches were in other words very lazy physically. To see the Headmaster enter the room in this way showed that the man was very much an exception to this rule.

Harry couldn't help but snicker when he literally saw the Headmaster process the sight of the room and realize that a) the danger had long since passed and that Harry was watching him entering the room and making a fool of himself.

"Well damn." The Headmaster remarked after a moment. "I don't suppose I could convince you to keep the way I entered to yourself?" The man asked hopefully.

"That you are an exception to the laziness of the typical wizard?" Harry asked in return. "Yhea. Sure. Why not?"

"Why do I have the feeling that you don't mean that?" The Headmaster asked with a frown.

"If I did, would anyone believe me?" Harry answered with a shrug. "It's not like I could blackmail you over a silly thing like this." Harry didn't know it, but making a statement like that could be interpreted as double talk. Something that the Headmaster in particular was very familiar with.

"What do you want?" The man said with a sigh.

Harry blinked several times. _'Huh?'_

"I already told you, I don't want anything!" Harry repeated, more slowly this time as if he were talking to a slow child.

Unfortunately, the Headmaster translated this as 'I don't want anything YET.

"Fine. Have it your way. Say, did the hat think of putting you in Slytherin?"

Blinking at the change of subject, Harry was caught off-guard along with Nox and Lumos. They kept their silence leaving it to Harry to deal with the man.

"How did you know?" Harry asked eventually. Again, this wasn't the best answer because the Headmaster took this as confirmation that Harry did indeed want something. It would be a cause for confusion for the next several years.

"So… What happened?" The Headmaster decided to change the subject yet again and get to the heart of the matter. Figuring out what happened, why the room looked like a warzone and why Harry in particular was still conscious and awake.

Harry on the other hand took a real close look at the Headmaster. The views of phoenixes' were extreme, and Fawkes had been no different so the fact that Fawkes had remained as the Headmaster's companion was both a good thing and a bad thing. Because if the man had adopted Fawkes's extreme views… Regardless of whether he had or hadn't, it still meant that the headmaster wasn't a bad person. But his extreme ideals could make him an enemy anyway.

Harry decided to be the Gryffindor that he was, and ask questions blunt and to the point and hope to merlin he wasn't making a big mistake.

"Can I trust you headmaster?" Harry asked. He didn't know it, but Harry barely looked the eleven year old boy he was.

X  
End  
X

After months of being away, I present to you, a one shot that wouldn't leave me alone. It is a very interesting start if I do say so myself. It deals with Voldemort completely. There is no remnant of the evil wizard left. HOWEVER that doesn't mean that the pure blood extremists have been dealt with.

As of this moment, I consider this story finished, as the complete status indicates. I do reserve the right to continue this at my pleasure.

Because I can foresee a number of problems. First of all, it could get confusing with the dialogue of Lumos and Nox. I really want to AVOID using _this kind of dialogue_ **followed by this one** it is annoying if used too much and both Nox and Lumos would be important characters by default. So I would either have to use italic for their dialogue which can be confused with the thoughts of my characters since I've ALWAYS used _italic_ for thoughts in my stories.

A second alternative is using **bold** text but that is just as bad. Just look at older Naruto stories with Kyuubi as an important character. It gets old fast. My last alternative is using NORMAL dialogue as per normal. That could work but I would have to be very specific in who says what all the time. Which can get annoying as well.

So anyway, here's my thoughts on the story itself. My first idea was to make an unique start. Hard to do, I know but I think I gave it a good shot. Harry would get involved in politics regarding both the Golden phoenixes and the Black Phoenixes. Since he is of THEIR kind but not aligned with either. He would be the only alternative either faction would accept. Of course, there would be EXTREMISTS among the extremists.

My idea of both factions is that they don't compromise on their ideals. They go too far. Golden side don't kill. Except for their enemies the Black side. (hypocrite I know but that's the point.) The other side would do the opposite which is why they are more powerful but far fewer in number. Anyway, I'm going to leave my note making here otherwise my notes are longer then the story itself. Which is bothersome as well.

Anyway, please let me know what you think, good or bad but with REASONS backing it up. Meaningless Flames will be ignored and I will laugh in your face as I use your author's name to humiliate you in a painful death. Just back your (dis)like up by facts and we won't have a problem.

Kingdark


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